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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Hi everyone. Spent yesterday in my studio with two wonderful, crafty friends ... Susan and Christine. We met through Splitcoaststampers, which is an amazing community of wonderful crafters. We meet up about once a month or so, to have a play day. :) Yesterday we experimented with different types of watercolour mediums and papers. It was a lot of fun!!

Christine brought the above embossed image (gloss gel paste through a stencil on top of coated card stock), and her bister powders. We sprinkled the bister on top of the stenciling and spritzed with lots of water. I got a little carried away (as I usually do) and added way more crystals than I needed so it turned out fairly dark. I thought this would make a great masculine card and I am always in need of those. I simply added a small strip of heated copper at the bottom and stamped a sentiment. Easy card to make since I already had the main panel done from yesterday.

We usually have a fourth friend join us, but Shirl was not feeling well. We missed you Shirl!!

I'll be back over the next while sharing more of our experiments. Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Hi everyone. Last week I posted these cards using the same stencil, layout and design, but using just Black Brushos for the background. These are so many pigments within each colour. Today is just Light Brown Brushos. So happy with how they turned out.

Here's my second one ...

Just wanted to share. :)

Since I used snippets for my die-cut deers, and snippets for the torn snowdrifts, I'm linking up to Snippet Playground. :)

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

I made this thank you card for a dear friend. She has now received it in the mail, so I'm sharing with you. :)

I stamped and heat embossed "delightful" from Penny Black in liquid platinum embossing powder on mixed media paper. I then watercoloured with my zigs, using a damp paint brush. I added some small dots with a white gel pen to the petals to give them some extra interest. The sentiment is also heat embossed in liquid platinum and sequins were added for a little sparkle. I'm happy with this one layer CAS Mix Up (mixed media) design, which includes stamping, heat embossing, and watercolouring.

I have added a new Pinterest Board. CAS Mixed Media has become a bit part of my life, so I decided to add a new board for that style of card. Would love for you to check it out if you have time.

As well, I have been working on my blog post labels and have managed to reduce them from 322 (yikes!) to 117. :) I wish it could be less, but for now, I'm happy with 117. I have added them to the bottom of my blog for anyone looking for something in particular.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

The panel above started with randomly heat embossing some script background (I do love this background!). :) Colour was then added over top of the embossing using the acetate smooshing technique with Distress Inks (Twisted Citron and Broken China). Love the subtle colours paired with the embossed script.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Hi everyone. Having some fun with my new die from Penny Black. I do love poinsettias and this one is so pretty. The poinsettia full bloom (back piece) is cut from a piece of smooshed Inka gold and Regal Rose re-inker that I had in my stash. Gold foil card stock was used for the lacy topper.

I also used a small strip of gold patterned vellum that was given to me ages ago by my good friend Nancy. Thanks Nancy!

The panel with the poinsettia is popped up for added dimension, and the sentiment is heat embossed in gold.

I was so happy with how the first card turned out, that I made a second, which I will donate to charity.

My CAS Mix Up card has stamping, heat embossing, die-cuts, smooshing, inka gold and vellum. Just a reminder that our May challenge is closing in a few days. Still time to play along. Challenge is open until midnight, May 24th PDT (Pacific Daylight Time).

Today I received some new craft goodies in the mail. I LOVE this tree stencil and paired it with my new deer trio die-cuts.

Even though this looks like a complicated card, it is not. I simply placed my tree stencil over some mixed media paper, sprinkled with a little of the black brushos (black is one of my favourites as it has MANY colours within the one little pot of goodness). I spritzed with water, removed the stencil and blotted with paper towel. Background done. :)

I tore two pieces of white card stock for my snow drifts, and added two of my deer die-cuts. Simple stamped greeting and the card was finished.

I still had one more deer left, so made a second card with the same design, only changing it to landscape.

Fun and easy ... and now I have two more Christmas cards for my stash. :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Hi everyone. Today I was visiting blogs of friends that I follow and I came across this post from my friend MaryH. I LOVE Mary's beautiful card, and was intrigued by the video tutorial she included with her post. I watched the Ellen Hutson video and had to try the technique right away. :)

I embossed my stencil onto my card front ... it's just a subtle embossing, but you can definitely see the depth in real life. Sponged on my colours (there's a few booboo's where I got a little crazy with the green, but all in all, pretty easy to do with masking off areas with removable tape). Once I was finished, I removed the stencil and then brushed on the Perfect Pearls. It adds a subtle sparkle to the flowers.

Here's a close-up ...

All the stars seemed to align, so I'm entering this into three challenges. :)

I used a snippet of black cardstock to heat emboss my sentiment, so I'm dropping by the Snippet Playground for a little fun time. :)

Monday, May 16, 2016

I haven't done a sponged sunset for a long time ... it was fun to get my fingers inky! :)

I sponged distress inks for my background (squeezed lemonade, ripe persimmon, and picked raspberry topped with wilted violet to get my magenta colour). Then I sprayed with water to add some visual texture. Love how it turned out.

I stamped two trees in black ink and then added a die-cut curve at the bottom that I got from my good friend Hazel. Thanks Hazel!

This CAS Mix Up card has heat embossing, watercolouring, stenciling and fussy-cutting, but is still a CAS design.

I used mixed media paper for this flower. I watercoloured with my Zig brushes and then fussy-cut. It's a bit tricky getting a good cut with mixed media paper as it's quite thick, but I managed with only a few edges that aren't smooth. The background is sponged over a leaf stencil just randomly at the bottom of the card front.

Come join us! The challenge is open until midnight May 24th (PDT) so there's still lots of time to play along.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Hard to see in the photo, but the background has embossing from a texture plate which adds a little interest.

I stamped and heat embossed the bouquet of rose buds and sentiment in gold, and then heat embossed the bouquet again onto some mixed media paper which had been watercoloured with magenta and a touch of orange. Then I fussy cut the coloured blooms and paper pieced them onto my card front.

Super easy card that didn't take long as I had the embossed background in my stash (a gift from a friend), along with my watercoloured background in my stash. :) Love it when a card comes together fast. :)

I used a snippet of paper for my colourful rose buds, so I'm popping into the Playground for a visit! :)

And even though this card is very CAS, it is also a CAS Mix Up card with heat embossing, watercolouring, dry embossing and paper piecing. :)

Saturday, May 07, 2016

Hi everyone. Today I'm having more fun with my Brushos ... and using one of my new stencils from STAMPlorations. I just received my latest order with ten ... yep, TEN new stencils to play with. :)

I simply placed my stencil over top of a piece of mixed media paper, sprinkled lemon brushos mostly in the center areas of the roses, and then brilliant over the rest of the areas of the roses. Spritzed with water and then removed the stencil and blotted up the excess water with paper towel. I love how the colours flowed and the softness once blotted with paper towel. I stamped my sentiment and framed the card front in black.

Thursday, May 05, 2016

Hi everyone. Had another day of experimenting in my studio. So fun! :) Today I was trying out the bleaching technique on a brushos background that is a small part of this wonderful video from Dina of Splitcoaststampers. Even though this video is almost a year old, I only saw it for the first time last night and was mesmerized by all the way Dina shows how to use Brushos (or Color Bursts, or Bister Powders). Worth watching!

Before I started making my card, I put on some grubby clothes that I didn't care about. I have worked with bleach before. Even though I'm really careful, I still end up with it everywhere. Or so it seems. :) Just a warning for anyone else that is messy like me. :)

I have some empty water brushes, so filled one with bleach and used on one of my Brushos backgrounds from my stash. Didn't work the best. Took a long time to get the bleach to soak in. Then I remembered Dina mentioning about using it on "fresh" brushos to get more contrast and so created a smooshed Brushos background, dried it with my heat tool (not completely dry), stamped the flower sprig in Archival ink, and went over it lightly with a bleach filled waterbrush. LOVE how it turned out.

Not sure why it worked better on a new background and not ones in my stash, but maybe the colour sets more over time?? Not sure. This would be the same for the ghosting technique she shows in the video as well. Where you place a stencil over top of the brushos background, spritz with water and then remove the excess water with a paper towel. Doesn't show on backgrounds that have been made a while. :)

It's great to learn things. I'll be trying out more of Dina's techniques ... so many fantastic ideas.

Basic instructions are to cut out a piece of wax paper a bit larger than your card fronts. You will use two card fronts for one piece of wax paper. Scrunch the wax paper tightly and then smooth out to create lots of texture (I didn't do this step ... just used my piece plain). Place the wax paper into an embossing folder and run it through your machine. Remove, then sandwich the embossed wax paper between two card fronts, place inside a piece of scrap copy paper to protect your iron, and iron over top on a medium to high setting (NO steam). You end up with an embossed image on one card front, and a debossed (opposite) on the other. It's a very cool and easy to do technique.

I sponged two colours of distress inks randomly over top (Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers) to reveal the design. I cut an angled panel, added a die-cut white leaf sprig, stamped a simple sentiment and added three dew drops made by my good friend Hazel (My Card Attic). Thanks Hazel!

Here's a close-up ...

Easy and fun card to make! :) Thanks so much for dropping by for a visit!